Of course we love our cats, hamsters, rabbits, chinchillas, goats, chickens, and any other pets we have. But only one pet has been ever deemed consistently as “man’s best friend” and that is our dogs. In these loving and loyal creatures, one can find comfort, love and companionship. These are things that many people in confined living situations such as hospitals or assisted living homes often need. That is where therapy dogs come in.

Therapy animals serve to bring love, comfort and happiness to places ranging from hospitals to schools or universities. There are many cases where family and friends cannot seem to visit and connecting with a therapy dog often times fills that void. Scientific research has demonstrated that interaction with a therapy dog helps improve all facets of a patient including their mental, emotional and physical well being, which then results in a better and faster recovery. Some of the health benefits include decrease in stress and anxiety, blood pressure, and loneliness. In addition, contact with therapy animals creates an increase in socialization, level of fitness, and mental stimulation.

Do you have a loving dog who would make an amazing therapy dog? Therapy animals must absolutely adore human contact and excessive petting. Additionally, they must be comfortable staying one place regardless of whether it is the floor or a lap. No tricks are necessary, however, ability to follow basic obedience commands is a must. But the thing that distinguishes an ideal therapy dog is a gentle, loving and patient temperament.

If your dog fits the above description, you may not even need to undergo therapy dog training. To test them out, at our facility in Northern Virginia, we do the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen Testing and perform the tests with your dog before doing a formal evaluation. If they can successfully achieve all the objectives, head straight to evaluation! We are certified Therapy Dog Trainers/Evaluators through TPU (Therapy Pets Unlimited). We provide extensive training to handlers and therapy dogs before pursuing certification.

Once you and your dog have undergone your necessary training, you must head to an evaluation. There are a few organization that only requires submission of a copy of AKC Canine Good Citizen certification and your application, however, a majority of organizations also require testing by members of their own organization. The evaluation includes your dog’s ability to accept a friendly stranger, sit politely for petting, an evaluation of appearance (is your dog well groomed), ability to stay in one place, and a few more skills. As the handler, throughout the evaluation, you will not expected to stand by as your dog performs skills. You should act proactively, as you would on the job, by foreseeing any misconduct. For example, if you enter a room with another dog, gently tell your dog there isn’t a need to bark rather than doing nothing or trying to calm them down after they’ve begun barking.

After you pass your test, you are required to submit a health evaluation done by your vet. The once you’ve register your therapy animal organization, you will officially have therapy dog certification and can serve your community freely!

If you are interested in your dog becoming a Certified Therapy dog, please contact us at info@offleashk9training.com or 571-252-5536

On a daily basis we hear stories about dogs who hate having their feet touched or their nails cut, this is generally due to the owners or breeders not doing “body desensitization” with their pups at a young age.

If you have a new pup, it’s highly important for you to do body desensitization drills with this pup starting as soon as you get him/her (8-weeks old).

We have dealt with a ridiculous amount of dogs who are collar and feet sensitive and reactive; seemingly, these are the two biggest areas where we have seen this issue. In THIS VIDEO, you will see a 6-year old Basset Hound who I just finished giving a private seminar for who was very “feet aggressive.” These owners were not at fault for this, due to the fact that they rescued the dog at a later age; however, whoever the breeder was (or original owners) are generally responsible for this behavior.

I would say on a weekly basis at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia, we deal with at least 1 dog who is collar reactive; meaning, it is a dog who is friendly but will react negatively if his collar is touched or handled. The main reason that these target points can be an issue is that a child (or stranger) who sees that your dog is “friendly” will not know that these specific areas “set them off.” If this happens, you may be left with an “unexpected bite,” I would HIGHLY recommend clicking that link and reading my blog on how dogs almost never bite “unexpectedly.”

So, what’s the solution to prevent this?

It’s so ridiculously simple to prevent, that it annoys me that dogs become reactive! When you get your puppy, immediately begin doing these 11 key things above on a DAILY basis (and even multiple times per day).

This is how it should break down for you and your pup:
Touch and hold the left paw, praise or treat.
Touch and hold the right paw, praise or treat.
Touch and hold the back left paw, praise or treat.
Touch and hold the back right paw, praise or treat.
Touch and hold the left ear, praise or treat.
Touch and hold the right ear, praise or treat.
Stroke the tail, praise or treat.
Rub around the collar area, praise or treat.
Rub around the muzzle area, praise or treat.
Hug and hold the dog for a few seconds, praise or treat.
Give the dog a light brushing, praise or treat.

If you did this simple drill on a daily basis, not only will your dog NOT become reactive but they will LOVE you doing these things! Why? Because your dog has associated you touching these areas with a reward and/or verbal praise (or even both).

This routine LITERALLY takes about 20-30 seconds to complete; therefore, there are really no excuses as to why you should not be doing this with your pup. Simple things such as these when combined with picking the right dog, socialization, and confidence building, will help ensure that you have a stable and confident pup.

If you do these 11 things with your pup: your vet, your groomer, and everyone who meets your dog will love you for it.

One big fear many dogs have are fear of noises (loud trucks, fireworks, thunder, etc). When we do puppy consultations at our training facility, Off-Leash K9 Training, in Woodbridge, Virginia, we always tell people, “Immediately start exposing him/her to as many noises as possible.” Turn on the vacuum, blender, hair dryer, and any other noisy devices you have around the house. I have seen far too many dogs that run and hide at the sound of a loud noise, especially vacuum cleaners and thunder. This can be completely prevented if you expose them to these noises at a young age. Expose your dog to as many noises as possible by the time he is five months old, and while exposing him, make it a positive experience through verbal/physical praise, treats, etc. Keep in mind, it’s NEVER too late to start doing these drills with your dog.

Many people asks, “What to do if you expose your dog to a noise (e.g., a vacuum) and he runs and hides from it?” Very simple—bring him back and make him deal with it. One of the many terms we use for this process is “flooding.” This means you find a noise your dog is afraid of and flood him with that noise repeatedly, every day. Again, flood him with this experience in a positive way, by giving praise, treats, etc. Fear of noises or things is a completely unrealistic fear that dogs have, just like humans. So, by making him sit next to the vacuum cleaner while it’s turned on, he realizes, “I’m not being hurt, I don’t feel any pain, and I am getting praised for this.” After a short while, that unrealistic fear will go away and the dog will soon realize that it is not a big deal and will soon pay no attention to it. They main key is, make them face it and do not let them run and hide, repeat until he/she no longer shows a reaction towards the noise. At our dog training in Norther Virginia, we work with a lot of dogs who fear noises.

If your puppy hears a lot of noise such as thunder, fireworks, or a car door slam outside and he runs to me for comfort? Never comfort your dog when he is afraid of something. This only reinforces the fear. Comfort is simply another kind of praise. Think about that for a second. When you comfort a dog, how is it different from praising him? You are petting them and talking cute to them in both instances. So when you break it down, you are praising your dog for being afraid of something. Now, any time it has a reason to be afraid, it will run to you in order to reap the praise that goes along with the action. So, never comfort your dog for being afraid. If he hears a loud noise and comes running to you, do not acknowledge him, do not look at him, touch him, pet him, or talk to him. Again, if he sees it does not get a response from you and you do not make a big deal out of it, he will not make a big deal out of it, either.

Start desensitizing your dogs to noises as soon as possible, and within a very short amount of time, you will notice a much more confident dog! Below, you can see a great video of our dog training in northern Virginia who have done some noise desensitization training, as you see, they completely ignore the noises we produce!

Anytime I appear on television or in a magazine, one of the biggest things I always talk about is “confidence building in dogs.” In my opinion, it’s one of the most important, yet, one of the most underrated aspects of dog training. Many owners and trainers alike overlook this very important aspect. This is something we stress everyday at our dog training facility in Northern Virginia

As I always point out, confidence in dogs is as equally important as confidence in people. People with very low confidence are rarely successful, engaging, or social, the same can be said for dogs. In this article of confidence building in dogs, I am going to discuss object desensitization.

I tell all of our clients who do our puppy training in Virginia (dogs 10-16 weeks old) at our , “Start getting your dog on as many objects, textures, and elevations as humanely possible over the next couple months.” What this simple yet very effective step does is that it starts to get your dog exposed to being on a wide variety of things at an early age. By exposing your dog to all of these different surfaces as a puppy, it gets them highly confident being on or in any texture or elevation; additionally, it gets them used to jumping up on things and jumping off of things.

Watch the video below of one of our training sessions, this was a dog who was not exposed to these types of things as a puppy; therefore, it would not jump up on anything, and anytime the owners would try to put the dog on a new surface (groomer table, scale at the vet, etc) he would fight it and try to run away. The owners had to lift this rather large Lab into their care for months, all due to lack of object desensitization.

This is a good example to show you why object desensitization is very important at a young age! Not only does it make your life easier when trying to get your dog on or in something, but it’s very good for your dog’s confidence, which is very important! When we do our puppy training in Northern Virginia, this is something we always discuss.

In our next blog, we will be discussing the importance of noise desensitization in order to build confidence in your dog, so stay tuned!

I have an entire chapter on confidence building in my book, “Raising the Perfect Dog: The Secrets of Law Enforcement K9 Trainers.”